Only nine people died in coal mining accidents in 2016, according to the Associated Press, which if nothing changes would be a record low.

At first, this seems like good news. Mining deaths are especially horrific — they are commonly caused by explosions, fires, vehicle accidents, and wall and roof collapses. Many of these deaths happen deep underground, and they used to be quite frequent. The deadliest year in the country's history for coal mining deaths was 1907, with 3,242 fatalities. In the decades since, the numbers have plummeted. Last year, there were only 11 coal mining deaths.

The low number is attributed in part to better equipment and enforcement of safety regulations, but it's also reflecting the fact that the US coal industry is shrinking on every metric.

The numbers are drastic even just looking at the difference between 2014 and 2015. US coal production fell 10.3 percent year over year, resulting in the lowest annual production level since 1986 according to the Energy Information Administration. The average number of employees dropped 12 percent to 65,971 employees for the whole country, the lowest on record since the agency started keeping track in 1978. And finally, the price of coal fell 8.6 percent.

Four of the deaths this year occurred in West Virginia, including Peter D. Sprouse, 53, who became entangled in an underground conveyor belt; Eric Meddings, 50, who crashed the vehicle he was operating; Donald E. Workman, 58, who died in a methane explosion; and Matthew B. Davis, 46, who died in a vehicle crash.

Two of the deaths happened in Kentucky, where Nathan G. Phillips, 36, was pinned against a wall by a continuous mining machine and Mark Frazier, 48, died after a wall collapsed underground.

Jeremy R. Neice, 31, died in a wall collapse in a Pennsylvania mine. Robbie E. Clark, 34, was crushed under a piece of equipment in Illinois. And finally Yujun Qian, 36, a China resident who was supervising work at the Oak Grove Mine in Alabama, died 800 feet underground when a piece of equiment collapsed on him on Dec. 2. Local officials reportedly negotiated with the company to send Yujun's body back to China.

Like many modern coal mines, Oak Grove is struggling to cut costs. In 2015, the mine, which produces coal used to make steel, cut 220 jobs due to falling prices.